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40. This small lamp, which was bought on the art market, is identical in shape to one excavated by the Museum in Nishapur. The dates attributed to these and similar objects in other collections have varied considerably over the years, ranging from the fifth to the eleventh century. Once again we can turn to the material from Serge Limani to find help in settling a dating problem. In this case the evidence is a fragmentary lamp (see photograph,p. 8, below) that is identical, except for its coloration, to the Metropolitan's two lighting devices. Once an Early Medieval date was unequivocally determined for such glass lamps, parallels were easily found to corroborate this reattribution. An almost identical shape exists in glazed pottery datable to the late eleventh or early twelfth century (a turquoise lamp, also excavated at Nishapur, and a white spouted vessel in the Victori and Albert Museum, London), and a very similar metal lamp bearing the date of A.H. 483/ A.D. 1090 is in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art, Istanbul. The suggestion made in connection with no. 32 that a given shape probably stayed a la mode for one or two generations is further substantiated by the evidence cited above. 41. It has been suggested that the moldblown vessel no. 34 was one illustration of how glassmakers in the Early Medieval period attempted to imitate relief-cut designs in less time-consuming tech- 40 niques. This ewer appears to be another example of such copying. The principal decoration, executed in trailed threads, is suggestive of the undulating, stylized vegetal scrolls often executed in the more difficult, relief-cut, technique, as seen on the beaker no. 26. The series of horizontal rings on the neck and body are paralleled on relief-cut glass ewers, as is the shape, except for the pedestal-like modification to the foot and the very sharp return at the bottom of the vessel. Imitations of relief-cut beakers, decorated in the same trailed-thread technique as such adaptations of relief-cut ewers, also survive. Whether these lessexpensive versions were made in the same centers as the monochrome and the bichrome, cameo relief-cut glass objects or were provincial copies of them is impossible to say at this point. 42. The undulating threads flanking the lower neck are the only decoration on this beautifully proportioned and aged perfume sprinkler. These handlelike threads, the flattened globular body, and the slender neck with its small opening are all very characteristic of such vessels, which, when shaken, dispensed drops of expensive perfume suspended in a heavy oil base. An almost identical sprinkler in the British Museum and several executed in the marvered-and-combed technique with a similar opening in the body (which must have been designed for ease of holding when dispensing the precious cosmetic) also survive. 41 34 42
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Page 1 and 2: - - | The Metropolitan Museum of Ar
Page 3 and 4: ISLAMIC GLASS A BRIEF HISTORY Maril
Page 5 and 6: Introduction Congealed of air, Cond
Page 7 and 8: An overhead view of tables covered
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Page 11 and 12: The cup from SerGe Limani shown her
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Page 58 and 59: Credits 1. COSMETIC BOTTLE. Tooled
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R - Metropolitan Museum of Art

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